A bootstrapped Austin startup is taking on two of the world's most valuable and well-funded dockless e-scooter startups. And it's doing it in a bit of a nonconventional way.
GOAT Labs hasn't raised venture capital dollars, and, so far, it has only deployed about 20 scooters in Austin -- although it has permits for up to 500. Its two primary competitors, meanwhile, have put out 500 scooters each on local streets.
But GOAT's founders don't see the dockless scooter craze as a winner-takes-all contest. They believe that by allowing just about anyone to buy a fleet of dockless e-scooters and rent them out through GOAT's app that they can provide the new transportation mode to people in dozens of other cities and take on unicorns like Bird and Lime.
GOAT, which stands for "greatest of all time" and has no relation to the sneaker buying app GOAT, launched its new franchise model on Wednesday. It lets people buy one to 500-plus scooters that they can deploy whenever and wherever local regulations allow.
"We’ve proven the technology and removed the biggest barrier to entry, which is the development and technology side of the business," GOAT CEO Michael Schramm said. "We understand how to make the model profitable with few scooters and a small personal investment, so we decided to package the process and allow others the opportunity to succeed in this billion dollar industry."
But, like starting any business, there are some caveats.
Once someone buys a fleet of scooters, they are responsible for providing proof of insurance and getting proper permits from whatever city they operate in. That could be a barrier for some people as cities across the nation scramble to implement new laws after Bird and Lime deployed their scooters on several cities' streets before those cities had regulations to deal with them. In Austin, a six-month permit costs $30 per scooter.
Meanwhile, GOAT will provide a general liability insurance plan for a monthly fee and help owners navigate the permit process. The scooters' owner will track daily earnings on the GOAT platform and get alerts about location of scooters, battery levels and other data. GOAT will process the payments and send them along to the scooters' owner, minus a 15 percent fee and a payment processing fee.
One of the company's testimonials shows a couple who says they earned an average of $504 a week with a fleet of five GOAT scooters. Riders, meanwhile, pay $1 to unlock the scooter and 15 cents per minute to ride. The startup's online earnings calculator suggests you can make $88,715 a year in revenue ($53,246 in profit) by having 25 scooters that are rented 3 times a day, based on a 15 minute average ride. You can learn more about it here.
While GOAT is hoping to attract small business owners across the country to its new scooter model, the company has, for months, leaned on its Austin roots to help generate support from local government and local riders.
“The ‘greatest of all time’ (GOAT), has always referenced the user experience leading riders to the best each city has to offer. What we haven’t shared until today is our core belief in supporting and enabling small businesses to make an impact in their local community,” GOAT’s chief marketing officer and co-founder, Jennie Whitaker, said. “Austin is a city of innovation, but it’s also a place where people take pride in supporting local businesses, so sharing our new model alongside the motto, ‘always local’ is fulfilling on multiple levels.”
